The House Appropriations Committee advanced HB 1384, a bill funding a special election and interim congressional redistricting tied to a proposed constitutional amendment, over the objections of Delegate Austin, who argued current district boundaries already provide fair representation and that the process is too costly.
Delegate Austin argued the current congressional district boundaries 'fairly represent now the voters of Virginia,' citing a 6 Democrat to 5 Republican congressional seat breakdown, and stated the appropriation is 'detrimental to the citizens of the commonwealth in fair representation throughout.' Delegate Price countered that without action, states such as Texas, Florida, and North Carolina would 'diminish the power of our Virginians vote,' and characterized the bill as 'the most fair process that we can take in order to protect Virginians votes.' After Price's response, Austin explicitly stated 'it's not changed my mind' and 'I respectfully disagree.'
+ 1 more controversy
“Thank you. Delegate Price Committee, any questions or comments at this time? Delegate? Also Mr. Chairman, thank you and thank you for the explanation of the bill. It's quite a lot to absorb so quickly here. , the voters of Virginia adopted a commission to draw the boundaries within the commonwealth. And I feel the boundaries fairly represent now the voters of Virginia. we have congressional seats now are six Democrat, five Republican.”
+ 4 more quotes
Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.
Sign in to subscribeGood morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today. This morning, we're here to hear to receive house bill number 1384. At this time, we'll do roll call. Okay, clerk, and close the roll W. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members. House bill number 1384 is in front of us. It deals with funding for a few items, but the second article deals with the April 21st special election. And so I would love for Ms. Ann Oman to talk some of the numbers and then I will pick up at Article 2. Mr. Chairman, I move to drop the substitute. Second, all those in favor. And Mr. Chairman, the substitute simply changes some of the numbers in the title of referenced code sections. Thank you, Ms. Oman. As delegate Price indicated, the only change from the bill that is available online is in the title. So all of the content of the bill itself is the same. For those that do not have that yet, since it was just now adopted, Delegate Price had asked that I walk through the budgetary sections of the bill. So Starting on lines 20 to 46, this amends item five of the…
Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Virginia committee hearings.
Sign in to subscribe